03 Jul Wichita Children’s Home Receives $31,277 Grant from the Kansas State Human Trafficking Victims’ Assistance Fund
Wichita Children’s Home (WCH) was recently awarded a $31,277 grant from the State Human Trafficking Victims’ Assistance Fund (Kansas) to focus on supporting the depth and breadth of Wichita Children’s Home’s survivor aftercare services for victims of human trafficking (HT). Our primary goal is to empower these young women to heal and achieve self-actualization.
Funding helps WCH assist HT survivors to achieve their goals to reclaim and transform their lives and reduce the likelihood of re-victimization. The WCH aftercare coordinator will provide intensive case management and support to HT survivors exiting all of WCH’s residential programs.
The benefits to the individual minors served also benefit our wider community, as survivors make gains towards self-actualization and self-sufficiency. This program serves youth exiting WCH’s residential programs including from Garver House, a program in Kansas that provides residential and comprehensive services to minor victims of human trafficking.
The conditions that create vulnerability to sexual exploitation may include but are not limited to: poverty (desperation for basic needs); unemployment (desperation for earning money or items/services – ex. transportation or clothing); displacement (instability from home or community; or loss of parent may displace a child); lack of knowledge or experience (ex. teens may not be able to evaluate an offer from a trafficker as “too good to be true”); and/or broken families (ex. youth who are abused, neglected, abandoned, runaways).
WCH serves human trafficking victims, youth victims of crime, including those who are in foster care or police protective custody from Sedgwick and surrounding counties and extends services to other counties throughout Kansas. The Aftercare Survivor Program’s referrals typically come from existing WCH residents. A majority have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) – such as poverty, homelessness, domestic violence, sexual or physical assault, substance use, being a runaway or throwaway youth, or mental illness of family members.
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